"Bought by the Tories when they were in charge for £41,000 of public money?

"It was run for two winters and lost a further £6,000.

"Average daily usage was three adults and 13 children.

"So no ice, no customers and no money.

"Well the Labour/Independent council has cut its losses and the 'rink' has now been sold for £20,000.

"We can draw a line underneath it and move on."

A spokesman for East Staffordshire Borough Council told the Mail: "At this precise point in the process we are unable to provide you with any more information than has already been supplied by Councillor Mott.

"We shall release more information as soon as we are in a position to do so."

Councillor Mott said: "The skating rink was an embarrassing and expensive blunder by the Conservative group. It shows that money was being thrown down a hole.

"There won't be an ice rink again as it is just throwing money away. I didn't see one person using it."

Tory councillor Richard Grosvenor, who was leader of the council at the time the ice rink was purchased, said the authority was simply giving the people what they wanted, but blamed the ice rink's failure on political opposition and bad publicity during the past few years.